Nonclassicality of a photon-subtracted Gaussian field

Abstract

We investigate the nonclassicality of a photon-subtracted Gaussian field, which was produced in a recent experiment, using negativity of the Wigner function and the nonexistence of well-behaved positive $P$ function. We obtain the condition to see negativity of the Wigner function for the case including the mixed Gaussian incoming field, the threshold photodetection and the inefficient homodyne measurement. We show how similar the photon-subtracted state is to a superposition of coherent states.